All's Well That Ends Well (NT Live – City Screen, York, 1st October 2009)

I saw the National production of All’s Well That Ends Well in July and thought it was a fantastic production with its focus on the fairytale elements of the play.  I felt at that time it will be interesting to see how the cinema experience captures the wonderful set.  For the most the screening, as part of the ntlive season, worked really well.  I just  felt at some times the overall feel of the set didn’t always come across.  This is because the cameras have to work with a combination of close-ups and long shots which means that our gaze is more directed than it would be in the theatre.  It is not always possible to see other characters’ reactions to speeches when the camera is focused on the face of one actor, or to move our eyes to the surroundings and back to the actor and observe all the effects in the background.  The Olivier is a much bigger stage than the Lyttleton and I would have thought that it is much harder to cover as much as might be needed to give a sense of a busy atmosphere full of effects, such as the puppets and a wonderful contrasts between the light and dark moving through it. It is interesting to note that there is a technical rehearsal so what we see isn’t raw and unplanned.  I felt that it had been useful to have seen the live production first because I was able to bring that experience to my viewing in the cinema and it gave me a feel for the atmosphere and the feel of the set.     However, I do enjoy the cinema experience.  I suppose the next thing to do would be to attend the theatre on the evening of filming  to experience what the filming of the live production might feel like as a member of the audience.

Unlike the screening of Phedre, this time there was an interval, and I had been wondering how this might work in the cinema.  We were presented with a countdown on screen to make sure we were in our seats before the performance started and to ensure we weren’t getting up and down  as the performance began we were shown a live interview between  Alex Jennings and the designer, Rae Smith.  This was interesting, but Smith was trying really hard to talk about her set without giving away what would happen in the second half of the play. 

Again the experiment worked really well.  I noticed that the National Theatre’s Artistic Director, Nicholas Hytner, still refered to this being a pilot in his discussion at the start of the screening.  It is a strange experience watching theatre in a cinema.  It’s not always clear if laughter is from the audience at the theatre or in the cinema for example.  I’m still not sure if I should applaud or not.  I feel that I want to and some people did at the City screen in York where I watched the performance.  The producers are grappling with what to do before curtain up and decided to braodcast pre screening interviews including Elliot Levey (playing 1st Lord Dumaine) interviewing the director, Marianne Elliott.  This gave us a sense of  being able to peek backstage and presenting us with a view of the prompter’s corner, which I don’t think we got when watching Phedre.  Nevertheless, though still a pilot the screening of a theatre production is now here to stay and people like me will stop blogging about them as if watching live theatre at the cinema is a strange novelty. 

For me this experiment works because I have seen both the live and cinema versions.  I wouldn’t want to replace my theatre experiences with one of watching productions through a camera lens, but I do see it as an enhancement to theatre going.  I see this as another chance to see a production already experienced in the theatre.  However, the ntlive project is making the National Theatre more accessible to a larger audience and that can only be a good thing.  I don’t think it will happen, but it might have been one way I could have seen the whole of  Mother Courage, because living so far from London, it is not possible for me to book to see the whole production again at the theatre.

Further information

National Theatre Website

Julie RabyLeave a comment

Dial M for Murder (West Yorkshire Playhouse, 30th September 2009)

This was a beautiful production playing with boundaries between cinema and theatre.  The plot was very straight forward but carefully worked out, which managed to build up tension throughout the two parts.  I felt that we didn’t particularly like any of the characters but we wanted justice to be done in the end.  What I liked most about this production was the overall aesthetic and feel of the production.  The lovely juxtaposition of reds, greys and blacks really worked well to create the atmosphere of a murder mystery and to set this work as a period piece. 

 

Reviews and Previews

Dial M for Murder in the Guardian
Dial M for Murder in the Stage
Telegraph on Dial M for Murder
Dial M reviewd in York Press

Julie RabyLeave a comment

The Winter's Tale (York Theatre Royal, 29th September 2009)

This was a lovely clear and very straight forward production with a focus on the text that brought Shakespeare’s words alive. It was without the set design frills (thrills) that the RSC production have adopted, and so stripped away some of the sense of a busy court. You have to do this with a small cast. However, this was used to great effect. Even though The Winter’s Tale deals with Kings and Queens, Headlong’s production is very domestic drawing attention to the intimacy of the situation and that this is a tragedy for both family and state. I think that Greg Hicks, playing Leontes in the current RSC production, is at the top of his game, but Vince Leigh in Headlong’s production did a great job with Leontes’ long complicated speeches. Unlike Simon Russell Beale’s portrayal of Leontes, there was no sense of where Leontes’ jealousy had come from.

At times I wasn’t clear where Sicilia and Bohemia where in this production, because there felt like there were lots of references to Greece in both countries. This isn’t really a problem, because I think Shakespeare intended his audience to see both as magical and distant worlds. The first half, set in Sicilia, gets darker and darker as the Queen is brought to trial before her husband. Her clothes are filthy becuase she has been in the prison and she is clearly exhausted after giving birth. As the tragedy has struck and when Leontes thinks both his wife and son is dead, the set goes black. And then suddenly there is a blue background and things lighten up for the sheep shearing scene. This production highlighted some of the parallels between both countries and parts of the play. The doubling up of Mamillius and Perdita worked really well. Both parts were played by Bryony Hannah and I really believed her portrayal of Mamillius was a young boy and that she is a beautiful sixteen year old ‘princess’ in the second half. I felt that here was a clear relationship between the trial scene and the statue scene. Hermione stands on the same overturned box and in both scenes is the becomes the focal point for the court. In the first the life is taken from her and in the second life is put back into her. John Hodgkinson was equally effective as both Antigonous and Autolycus and Golda Roshheuval played the stern Paulina wonderfully, but was also able to become the comic Shepherdess

I was delighted to see a large audience for this production. This production was part of the wonderful and energetic Takeover festival at York Theatre Royal. There’s so much good stuff to see each week.

Reviews and Previews

The Winter’s Tale in York Press
The Winter’s Tale at York Theatre Royal in York Press

Julie RabyLeave a comment